A “guaranteed freedom”.
During the night, deputies largely approved the entry of abortion (voluntary termination of pregnancy) into the Constitution.
The vote should be confirmed on Tuesday, before the text goes before the Senate.
“Abortion is not a freedom like any other, because it allows women to decide their future,” said Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti at the opening of the debates.
VIDEO.
“It’s a fundamental right”: Hundreds of demonstrators in France to defend the right to abortion
“The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse” to an abortion is exercised.
The executive hopes that this right can be enshrined in the Constitution, in memory of its last attempt during which the Senate preferred the notion of “freedom” of access to abortion to that of “right”.
Mathilde Panot (LFI) called for a “historic victory” over the “anti-rights (who) sit (…) on the extreme right”.
“There is no question of our political family calling into question access to abortion,” retorted Pascale Bordes (RN), who criticizes an “inappropriate and useless” reform.
“Our country cannot side with Trump’s United States or Orban’s Hungary.
The crows are at our doors and we will not leave our bodies,” insisted environmentalist MP Marie-Charlotte Garin.
LR amendments castigated by the left
The debates turned sour in the evening, particularly during the examination of LR amendments to return the legal period for abortion to 12 weeks (compared to 14 currently).
Reproaching the majority for not committing against a hypothetical significant extension of the legal duration, Thierry Breton (LR) accused it of behaving like a “trailer of Family Planning”, sparking a reaction from the left of the hemicycle and on the side of the Macronists.
Also read “Abortion is not threatened in our country”: Larcher speaks out against its inclusion in the Constitution
The Renaissance rapporteur Guillaume Gouffier Valente replied that he had not seen "the slightest amendment requesting an extension" on the left or among the Macronists, but several which "attack access to the right to abortion" coming from the right, in order to to defend the association which he described as “independent”.
Furthermore, Éric Dupond-Moretti tried to respond to the LRs who see in the “guaranteed freedom” formula a breach for an extension of the legal duration, without the Constitutional Council being able to oppose it.
He notably emphasized the fact that the revision will not create “absolute and unlimited right”.
Invoking a "balance" of the Veil law between women's freedom and "protection of the unborn child", LR deputies pleaded to constitutionalize the "protection of human dignity" and the conscience clause of caregivers refusing to practice health care. 'Abortion.
Vote on January 30
After often bitter debates between the majority and the left on one side, and LR elected officials on the other, 99 deputies voted for the single article of the constitutional revision project.
It will be considered adopted in the Assembly on January 30 if it obtains a new green light during a solemn vote, which there is little doubt.
Read alsoThe inclusion of abortion in the Constitution would be “a symbol sent to the whole world”, for feminists
The presidential camp, and the left-wing and Liot deputies present brought their votes, as well as two LR deputies and two RN.
Thirteen deputies voted against (four LR, eight RN and one non-registered).
The path chosen for a constitutional revision requires that both chambers adopt the same text, before it is submitted to a vote in Congress bringing together parliamentarians, and requiring 60% of the votes.
“We will take the time it takes to complete this review”, promised by Emmanuel Macron, tried to clear the mines on Wednesday.
If the Senate again passes a different version of the Assembly, the parliamentary shuttle would resume.